


we pick ourselves undone

by orphan_account



Category: Star Trek (2009)
Genre: Implied Torture, Multi, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-07
Updated: 2013-05-07
Packaged: 2017-12-10 16:09:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/787927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kirk, Spock, and McCoy find themselves the subjects of an alien experiment.<br/>Written for <a href="http://www.theoriginalreboot.tumblr.com">The Original Reboot</a>. Based on The Empath episode of TOS.</p>
            </blockquote>





	we pick ourselves undone

Jim smacks his communicator on the heel of his hand as Scotty’s voice crackles and spits indecipherably. Spock, from over his shoulder, throws a skeptical look at Jim’s less than conventional treatment of his communicator, but it does seem to dislodge some of the interference from Scotty’s voice. Jim gives Spock a smug look, which Spock dutifully ignores as Jim, Spock, and Bones make their way to the research outpost.

The planet is barren and nothing special, the small research outpost being the only noticeable landmark. Jim feels a stab of pity for the poor souls posted here for months on end all to study some random star, but scientists are strange that way.

“What was that, Scotty? Didn’t catch it,” Jim says.

“I said, there’s going to be a massive solar flare coming from that star in a few minutes. Must be from how unstable that star is getting, sir,” Scotty repeats. “We have to get the Enterprise out of the way or we’ll be cooked in our seats by the radiation.”

“Yeah. Get the ship out of there, Scotty,” Jim orders, as they come to the outpost.

“Want me to beam you out of there? We’ll be out of range of communicators if we leave orbit.”

Jim makes a face. He hates being separated from the Enterprise but he needs to get the scientists off the planet before the star decides to go supernova. Beaming up to the ship now would just waste valuable time.

“Negative. We’ll be protected from radiation by the planet’s atmosphere. Have the Enterprise come back into orbit once radiation levels are normal. Kirk out.” He snaps his communicator shut.

“I always get a bad feeling when you send the ship away,” Bones sighs.

“Well, I’d be getting a hell of a lot more than a bad feeling if I let her stay,” Jim sighs, putting his communicator away. “Just looks like we’ll be here longer than we thought. Now let’s go grab some scientists.”

The doors to the base swoosh open at their approach, revealing a small, clean, well-lit facility. It is a relief to be out of the dusty dryness outside.

“Hello!” Jim calls, peering down the hallway. The report had said that there were only two scientists working here.

“Captain! You’re just on time.” A man walks out of one of the adjoining rooms. He is tall, looking even more so by the way the legs of his standard jumpsuit don’t quite cover his ankles.

As he approaches, he extends a bony hand in greeting, which Jim and Bones shake. Spock nods his greeting. “I’m Doctor Ozaba. Doctor Linke is just finishing up collecting the last of the data. We’ll be ready to beam up in five minutes, if we hurry a bit,” he says quickly.

Jim puts up a hand, stopping the Doctor from his hurried introduction. “Actually, looks like there’s a bit of a delay. Solar flare means the ship needs to stay out of orbit. Looks like you’ve got some more time to pack everything up.”

Ozaba looks pleased. “Well, that’s a blessing, I have to admit.” His eyes lift briefly upward. “ _The Lord has done it this very day; let us rejoice today and be glad_ ,” he recites.

McCoy’s eyebrows draw together. “You mean you actually want to stay on this rock for longer?” he asks bluntly.

Ozaba, instead of taking offense, laughs good-naturedly. “Now you’re sounding like Linke. I keep telling him how lucky we are. No one’s ever been able to study a star going supernova in such close proximity and for such duration, so close to its end. I wish we could stay until Minara bursts into flame, but then who would be left to accept the Nobel Prize?” Ozaba laughs again.

“I’ll go tell Linke the news. He won’t like the delay, but he’ll be glad that you’re here all the same. With this extra time, we might even be able to run another test or two.” With that, Ozaba rubs his hands together and strides down the hallway with considerable speed.

“Well,” Bones says, turning to Jim with both eyebrows raised.

“Now I think I know how he could spend six months in this place without losing his sanity,” Jim says, leaning easily against a wall.

“Depends on what you mean by sanity, Jim,” Bones replies.

“Doctor,” Spock begins, turning towards McCoy, “Although I find Ozaba’s manner of speaking rather… buoyant, I must agree with the high value he places in this research. It is certainly a rare and valuable opportunity to be able to—”

The air is ripped raw with a screeching whine that seems to shatter Jim’s vision before he realizes that he’s inadvertently screwed his eyes shut. He forces them open but can find no cause of the sound. It lasts at least ten seconds and leaves them doubled over and breathless.

“What the hell was that,” Jim gasps, once it has passed.

Spock has already begun using his tricorder. Its familiar, thin hum of activity still grates against Jim’s tender ears.

“It seems to have been transmitted from below the planet’s surface,” Spock answers.

“Ozaba. Linke,” Bones reminds them, eyes wide.

They rush down the hallway, into the room where Ozaba had gone. There is no one there. A PADD lies on the ground, splintered on one corner from being dropped. Before they can contemplate this, the loud screech begins again, this time seeming even louder. Jim presses the heels of his hands over his ears but it doesn’t help against the noise.

He feels an unknown force begin to pull at him, try to take him away. Jim reaches blindly for Spock, who is close by, but his fingers close around empty air. “Spock!” he yells, only to realize that Bones has vanished as well. For a terrifying moment, Jim is alone in the room. Then everything falls away with a sickening lurch.

* * *

Jim lands on his face.

Even before he opens his eyes he knows he has broken his nose, can feel blood slick against his skin and metallic against his tongue. It pools against his face until he is forced to push himself up slowly with a heartfelt groan. Jim has a personal distaste of broken noses, one that has been built up from years of experience. You don’t realize what a big part of your face your nose is until it’s hanging off of it in shreds of cartilage and bone.

He looks around, searching for Bones and Spock but Jim is completely alone. The silence is so oppressive that Jim hesitates to call out. He groans and stands up. His nose continues to bleed sluggishly.

Jim licks blood away from his lips and looks up. The ceiling is distant and domed. The light doesn’t seem to have a fixed source and shifts, with is disorienting. Meanwhile, the air buzzes with some kind of energy that makes Jim’s skin itch. No matter where he turns, he can’t find any walls or pillars, just an empty space that stretches into murky darkness around him. Jim feels open and vulnerable and watched. He quells the sudden goose bumps by sheer force of will.

Jim picks a direction and begins to walk, cursing the lack of walls or pillars for any kind of reference point. He has no idea if he’s even walking in a straight line. He does not know how long he walks for, but he forces himself to walk steadily and not to panic, not to think about where Spock and Bones are now, hurt or captured or free. His steps fall into the same rhythm as the throbbing in his nose and he makes himself focus.

Eventually Jim begins to see a light. Hoping that it is a way out, he picks up his pace, only to realize that the light is pooled around a sort of stage, upon which he can make out of the figure of a women lying curled on her side.

He takes out his phaser and sets it on stun, scanning the surroundings. They seem to be alone. He approaches the woman cautiously. Upon closer inspection, the stage does not appear to be a stage at all, but a sort of enormous flat couch.

The woman appears to be asleep, but as he draws closer, her eyes open and Jim almost jumps back because they are sad and lonely and impossibly familiar. He sits up slowly, with a dancer-like grace, never looking away from Jim.

“Who are you? What are you doing here? Where are my friends?” he asks roughly. He forces his arm to raise his phaser in defense even though something in him deeper than instinct screams that she is rare precious and he should not hurt her. If McCoy and Spock were with him, he would not have raised his phaser. But he is alone, and for all Jim knows, she could be the one who brought them down here.

The woman says nothing but Jim gets the feeling that she understands what he is saying. She looks at him curiously, studying his face. There is something intrusive in the way she stares at him, like her fingers are gently hooking into him. There is nothing hostile in her expression, simply curious, so Jim allows himself to lower his phaser. He sits down on the couch.

“Why are you here?” he asks softly, more to himself than her. “You aren’t being held captive, or seem to be hurt. Who brought you here?” Jim rubs his face and instantly howls in pain as his broken nose explodes in pain.

He feels fingers on his cheek and suddenly it is like a cool balm is being laid against him, taking the pain away. Instead of curious, the woman’s eyes are intense and concentrated, full of a contemplative pain. Her fingers, feather light, move against his broken face like whispers, spreading the feeling of coolness.

Transfixed and horrified, Jim watches as her nose breaks before his eyes. It is slowly smashed, blood bringing red to her face, even as he can feel his own nose gently healing until no pain remains. Only then do her fingers withdraw. As she moves her hand away, her face gently forms itself back to what it was before, unharmed and unbloodied, with nothing but mild curiosity in her eyes.

“What the hell,” Jim breathes, eyes wide.

Jim does not count himself well traveled, not by a long shot. There are stretches of space that he knows he will never see. But he does pride himself on having encountered more than his fair share of alien worlds in his relatively short career as a captain. And yet he has never met or heard of anything like this woman. She is pure healing and empathy and Jim wants to take her far from this dark, cold place.

The healing seems to have drained her because she slumps forward slightly, mouth open in a silent gasp.

“I need to find my friends,” Jim says, more forcefully. This time, the woman’s expression shifts from curious to afraid, but not of him, of some recent memory. “You’ve seen them, haven’t you? They were here. I must have missed them.”

Jim stands, intent on finding his Spock and Bones. Suddenly he finds his limbs frozen, an invisible energy holding him still. As if a curtain is pulled aside, two creatures step forward. They wear dark robes, and the eyes in their ponderous heads are cold and distant.

“Fuck. What the hell? Why can’t I move?” Jim grits his teeth and tries to fight against what is holding him captive. His vision goes dark and he cannot breathe, energy leaving him so fast he feels like he is dying.

“Do not fight against the force field. You will only do yourself harm,” one of the aliens says, not even turning towards his direction. Jim tries to raise his phaser arm to fire, but even this small movement is beyond him. He watches, helpless, as the aliens examine the woman. They turn her face with long, spindly fingers, and she accepts their scrutiny with uncharacteristic apathy. There is no emotion in her eyes, no trace of the curiosity she had when she looked at Jim.

“What are you doing? Where are my friends? Where are Spock and—” Jim loses his breath then, nearly loses consciousness. He sags, letting himself give up against the force field before it drains every ounce of energy he has left.

“This one calls for his fellows, Lal,” one of the aliens remarks. Through hazy vision, Jim sees them turning their calculating gaze away from the woman and towards him.

“Where are they?” Jim gasps.

They ignore his question. “Perhaps our separation of the humans was not conducive to our interests,” Lal says. “They have all asked after each other. It is a noticeable pattern, Thann. It shows a certain sacrificial quality which may be beneficial.”

“Not all of them. The first two only feared for themselves. These last three are different. We should study them together,” Thann replies. Then the two of them vanish.

The force holding Jim disappears. He falls to the floor, breathing heavily. He feels boneless and weak.

“Jim!” McCoy’s steady hands lift him up, propping him upright against the couch. Jim blinks, trying to keep the world in focus but it keeps blurring away. He can just make out the hazy figures of Bones and Spock crouching before him, and he feels relief and security that they are here. McCoy’s hands leave him to rummage through the field medkit, and then he feels the pressure of a hypospray at his neck and the familiar sound of its release. Energy returns to him.

“Thanks,” Jim says, propping himself further upright.

“Did you break your nose?” McCoy says, sure fingers already prodding at Jim’s nose. The dried blood crusts away.

“No, she healed it,” Jim explains, swatting McCoy’s hand away.

“Remarkable,” Spock says, standing to look at the woman who still sits on the couch behind them. “Captain, I believe she may be an empath. She has the rare ability to directly connect to others’ emotions. I have met one like her long ago. But her healing powers are far greater than that other one’s were.”

“Her? You mean Gem?” McCoy says, helping Jim to stand up.

“Gem?” Jim asks incredulously, swaying only slightly on his feet. He still feels light-headed, but the sensation slowly passes as McCoy’s hypospray sets in. “She told you her name? She wouldn’t talk to me.”

“She can’t talk,” Bones answers. “She doesn’t have vocal chords. Not a single vestigial organ necessary for speech. Her species simply never needed to evolve them. I guess they must have communicated through their empathic abilities.”

“How do you know her name is Gem?” Jim asks him.  
McCoy flushes. “I made it up. I had to call her something! You two were god knows where,” he says defensively.

“So you both met her? Separately?” Jim says, trying to puzzle out this mystery. Spock and Bones nod.

Jim turns to look at Gem, who has been watching them curiously. “What do they want with her?” he asks quietly. “Did you see Ozaba and Linke?”

McCoy nods, looking solemn. “After they came for Gem, they took me to this laboratory place. Ozaba and Linke are dead, Jim. And it looks like they were in pain.”

Jim swallows and nods. “Spock, are you picking anything up with your tricorder? Maybe if we find the laboratory, we’ll get some answers.”

Spock immediately begins to take readings. “There seems to a wide arrange of sophisticated machinery in this direction,” he says, pointing.

“Come with us,” Jim says gently, taking Gem’s hand. She follows them willingly, but looks frightened.

They come to what McCoy called the laboratory. It is a large space, filled with strange machinery, the purpose of which is indiscernible to Jim.

“Where are Ozaba and Linke?” Jim asks. Spock and Bones lead him to the back of the laboratory space, where five clear tubes stand upright. Ozaba and Linke occupy two of them, their faces frozen in expressions of horror and pain.

The edges of Jim’s vision go white with anger. “They’re keeping them in jars,” he growls. He feels Gem pull away from him, as if his anger hurts her, and he releases her hand. “Sorry,” he tells her.

“There are three additional tubes,” Spock observes. The three of them exchange glances.

“We have to get out of here, have to contact the ship,” Jim says, looking around for a way out.

“There seems to be a passageway to the surface in this direction,” Spock points, peering at his tricorder. They move quickly in that direction, leaving the encased bodies of the scientists behind. At the mouth of the exit, just near the outside, they find one of the Vians, Lal, waiting for them.

Jim howls loudly and rushes at him, phaser extended. Lal quickly levels his device at him, stopping Jim in his tracks. This gives Spock the split second to come up to the Vian and give him a nerve pinch. Lal crumples to the floor and Jim is released.

“Take that device from him, Spock,” Jim says, catching his breath. “It could come in handy.”

Spock obeys and then they step through the exit. They find themselves on the surface once more, hot winds bringing dust to their eyes. All the same, Jim takes a deep breath and grins, glad to be away from the dark underground. Then he takes out his communicator.

“Kirk to Enterprise, come in Enterprise,” he says, hoping that the solar flare has passed and that the Enterprise is back in orbit. But there is no reply.

“She’s still out of range. She isn’t responding,” Jim sighs, putting the communicator away. Shielding his eyes from the dusty wind, he scans the landscape, finally spying the faint outline of the research outpost.

“There,” he says, pointing. They run towards it, but their progress is hampered by the winds which seem to have picked up in intensity. Several times, they stumble. Gem moves especially slowly. She isn’t wearing proper shoes, and is clumsy and slow.

“Scotty’s there, Jim!” McCoy yells over the wind. And they see him, arms waving at them in the distance. Spock, Bones, and Jim hurry to meet him, but Gem falls behind, stumbling over a rock. As Jim turns back to help her, he sees the Vians watching in the distance, dark robes not even moving in the wind.

“Keep going,” he tells Gem, and wait until she is gone before he begins to make his way back to where the Vians stand, waiting for him.

“What do you want with us?” Jim says angrily. “Leave us alone and let us go.”

“The prime ingredient is very evident in this specimen,” Thann says, ignoring Jim’s questions. Jim moves forward, intent on shaking the answers out of them. But faster than he can see, Thann levels a device on him, the same device that Jim recognizes as causing the force field from before. But instead of trapping him completely, it suspends his movements into numbing slowness. Time seems to stretch for ages, but finally he is released, falling to the ground, fingers curling painfully into the dust.

That is how Spock and Bones find him, fallen to the ground in front of the Vians who look on impassively.

“What happened?” Jim asks them. “Where’s Scotty.”

“It was a mirage, Captain, a decoy,” Spock answers.

“We must have a specimen to study,” Lal says imperiously.

“I’ll go with you,” Jim says, pushing himself up. “Just let my men go back to our ship. I’ll stay here.”

“Jim, what the hell are you doing?” Bones says angrily.

“Captain, I advise against—” Spock begins.

“That’s an order, do you understand?” Jim interrupts Spock. “Contact the Enterprise, get off this planet.” His voice harsh and rough and he cannot make himself look at Bones and Spock, can’t bear to see their eyes.

Then, when they make no reply, Jim forces himself look back, only to find that they are gone. Only Gem remains, her arms wrapped tightly around her body and a pinched expression on her face. He faces the Vians angrily. “Where did you take them? I told you to let them go back to the ship.”

“We rarely get such fine specimens. They will be useful to us,” Thann says. He raises his arm which holds one of the devices and the next thing Jim knows, they are back in the laboratory, cool darkness once more replacing the hot dustiness outside.

Jim thrashes, shouting at the Vians to let his friends go, but the Vians hold him in place so that he cannot reach him. Manacles wrap around his wrists and drag his arms up until Jim is lifted, slowly, painfully, to hang suspended from the ceiling. He sees Gem then, standing to one side. Jim understands that she is being made to watch, just as she was made to watch Ozaba and Linke.

“What do you want with me? What kind of information are you looking for?” Jim asks, fighting uselessly against the chains.

“Your species is too immature to comprehend it,” Thann answers.

“If you’re going to kill me like Ozaba and Linke, at least tell me what I’m dying for,” Jim says, sounding braver than he feels. He needs to keep talking, needs to keep the Vians occupied for as long as possible. Maybe then, Spock and Bones will have a chance to escape.

“We did not kill those men, their own fears did,” Lal says. He turns to face the clear tubes, where Ozaba and Linke are still frozen and studies their expressions of terror with a brief look of disdain.

“You, however, show a certain kind of courage, one that we will enjoy studying,” Thann adds.

“I have a theory that it is brought by your intensity of passion and your uncommon capacity to love others,” Lal says. The tone of his voice is almost conversational, like a scientist sharing his studies. “Perhaps it is the love you have for your friends that gives you such fascinating resilience. You love them more than you love yourself, and perhaps it is this that gives you your strength.”

“I don’t understand,” Jim says, anxious to keep them talking.

“Enough,” Thann says. “We will begin.”

Slowly and methodically, Jim begins to learn what each machine in the laboratory is meant to do.

* * *

“Doctor, please cease your stream of invectives,” Spock says mildly, after Bones has been swearing himself hoarse for a good minute. They are back where they began, where they first met Gem. Jim is nowhere to be found and even with Spock’s tricorder he remains hidden.

“We have to get out of here. Where’s the way we came out before?” McCoy says, finally calming down.

“I can no longer locate it. It seems that that passageway has been blocked off,” Spock answers. His usual calm demeanor is slightly askew, and there is something like desperation lingering in the edges of his voice.

There is a crackle of energy, and then Jim appears on the floor beside the couch, Gem beside him. Bones immediately tries to go towards him, but the force field returns, holding both him and Spock in place.

“Jim!” Bones manages to yell, the action draining him. But it doesn’t compare to the sinking feeling of dread he feels when Jim does not answer, just breathes heavily and lifts himself up slowly to the couch.

“Jim, say something, dammit!” he yells again, fighting the creeping feeling of numbing exhaustion.

“Doctor, you must stop fighting. The force field only becomes stronger as you exert yourself,” Spock says, his voice a dead calm. His mouth barely moves as he talks.

“Don’t tell me that, you hobgoblin,” Bones snarls, but he makes himself stop pushing against the force field.

Suddenly, Bones remembers the empath. “Gem,” he says. “You have to help him. You have to heal him or he’ll die.”

Gem approaches Jim, fingers ghosting across Jim’s face. It is bruised and bloody, almost unrecognizable. Through the tatters of his shirt, his back is crossed with red lines that bleed sluggishly. Gem barely touches Jim before she recoils, face split in fear and pain.

“Don’t be afraid,” McCoy says, his voice reduced to broken gasps. “You have to save him.”

Gem approaches Jim again, and this time she cups his face in both her hands. Jim’s injuries begin to vanish until they are completely gone. As he rises, Gem crumples to the floor.

Spock and McCoy are freed and they rush to the couch. McCoy examines Gem, and realizes with horror that she seems to have absorbed Jim’s injuries. Her beautiful face is marked and scarred. She takes a ragged deep breath and exhales, and her injuries slowly fade away. Beneath his hands, McCoy can feel her bones stitching together. But even after she is healed, Gem looks pale and exhausted. McCoy carefully helps her up to the couch.

“What happened?” Jim says, blinking in confusion.

“You do not remember?” Spock asks.

Jim shakes his head. “Just the laboratory. They wanted me to tell them something. I forget.” Jim says it quickly enough that Bones knows that he is hiding something. “Bones, what happened? You look like hell,” Jim asks, changing the subject.

“That’s nice,” Bones rolls his eyes. But he is feeling the aftereffects of the force field. It is all he can do to stay upright. Before he can collapse, he finds a stimulant-containing hypospray in his medkit, but his hands shake too much to administer it properly.

“Doctor, sit down,” Spock says, a firm hand pushing McCoy to sit on the couch beside Jim. He takes the hypospray and injects the stimulant. McCoy begins to feel less like the undead. He snatches the emptied hypospray from Spock with a glare. Spock only raises an eyebrow.

“Is Gem okay?” Jim asks.

“After she healed you, she fainted. It must have really done a number on her,” Bones says.

Jim blanches. “What if it was too much? What if she could have died? Why did you let her do that?”

Spock meets McCoy’s eyes briefly. They both know that they would have allowed Gem to proceed anyway, if it meant saving Jim’s life. “I believe her instinct for self-preservation would prohibit such a thing from happening, Captain,” Spock says, to reassure him.

Jim does not look convinced, but does not pursue the subject. “Spock, you have the device that the Vians use, right? Maybe we can use it to get out of here.”

Spock pulls out the device and they gather around to examine it. It is of simple design, but still unintelligible, no noticeable markings to denote which buttons have which purpose. But when Spock does try one of the buttons, nothing appears to happen.

“It doesn’t work. It’s useless,” Bones sighs.

“It appears to only operate with the Vians’ specific brain pattern wavelength,” Spock observes.

“Could you adjust it so that we can use it?” Jim asks him.

“Calibrating it to our specific wavelengths will be difficult, Captain,” Spock says, but McCoy can already see that look in Spock’s eye, knows that he is already taking the device apart in his head, finding the solution to the problem. For all that he calls Spock a heartless computer, for once, McCoy is grateful, not that he would ever admit it out loud.

Suddenly, the Vians appear again, the crackle of energy the only warning of their approach. McCoy sees Spock quickly hide the device from view.

“They call you Captain,” Thann says, addressing Jim. “Very well. You will pick one of your men. We require another specimen.”

“Go to hell,” Jim snarls, getting to his feet and balling his fists.

“Perhaps it will be useful to your decision if you know the pertinent information,” Thann continues, as if Jim had not spoken. “There is an eighty seven percent chance that the doctor will die. And while Commander Spock's life is not in danger, the possibility is ninety three percent that he will suffer brain damage, resulting in permanent insanity.”

“Go. To. Hell,” Jim grits out. And this time, the Vians disappear. As soon as they are gone, Jim sways dangerously, sheer force of will being the only thing that had kept him on his feet. Spock catches him before he can fall and helps him back to the couch.

“What’s wrong with me?” Jim says as McCoy scans him.

“It looks like the bends. I don’t think you should be doing any walking. You need to lie down and rest,” McCoy says rapidly. There is a deep fear in him that Jim will do something stupid like go with the Vians.

“No. When the Vians come back, I’m going with them. Then you use the device and get the hell out of here,” Jim says.

“Jim,” Spock says, the use of first name the only hint that Spock is very calmly freaking out just as much as Bones is. “You are the captain of the Enterprise. You are too valuable to sacrifice. As I am more expendable, and less likely to perish, I am the logical choice to go with the Vians.”

“The hell you are, Spock,” Bones says angrily, jabbing a finger into Spock’s chest. “How are we supposed to get out of here if you’re not here to fix that device? I’ll go. You need to stay with Jim and get him back to the ship.”

“Shut up, both of you,” Jim says over their voices. Spock and McCoy fall silent at the fierce look in his eyes. “Spock, get started working on that device,” he orders, the tone of his voice clearly indicating that he wants no more discussion. Spock obeys with only a small moment of hesitation, moving away from the couch to where the light is stronger so that he can start working.

McCoy takes a deep breath. He waits until Spock’s back is turned before he takes out a hypospray and approaches Jim.

“Feeling all right?” he asks him.

“Yeah,” Jim sighs. He is facing Gem, who is still unconscious. “Just a little tired. I need to go help Spock with that device.”

“I’m your doctor and I say you need to rest,” McCoy says, and with that, he stabs the hypospray into Jim’s neck. Immediately, Jim falls onto the couch, unconscious.

“How long will he be unconscious, Doctor?” Spock asks. McCoy startles badly, not realizing that Spock had come up behind him.

“A couple of hours. He needed rest. I wasn’t going to let him sacrifice himself. Now he doesn’t need to make that decision,” McCoy says defensively, resisting the urge to hide the hypospray behind his back like a guilty child.

“I am not questioning your actions, Doctor,” Spock says, and that is the first indication that McCoy gets that Spock is going to be more obstinate than he had anticipated. “However,” he continues, “now that the Captain is unconscious, command falls to me. It is now my decision who will be going with the Vians.”

McCoy gapes. “No way, Spock. You can’t go with them. How are we going to get out of here if you’re not here to fix that thing? You need to stay with Jim,” McCoy says, half aware that Gem is watching them intently, gauging their emotions. “He needs you with him on the Enterprise,” he adds grudgingly.  
Spock shakes his head. “No, Doctor. He does not. He has always done as he wants, and he always will. You need to be with him when his plans fall awry.”

“So that’s it, is it?” Bones says, advancing on Spock, knowing that he pushing into the personal space boundaries that Spock always had up around him, not caring. “You’re leaving him with me, think we’ll just get on peachy without you? You know, sometimes I think it’s a miracle Jim hasn’t died, hasn’t been buried on some alien planet by now. But it’s not a miracle, Spock. It’s you. He can’t be Captain of the Enterprise without you.”

Spock says nothing, and Bones realizes with a sinking feeling that his decision is already made. After a moment, Spock says, “I am in the process of recording my notes onto my tricorder. When I leave, you and the Captain may use them to adjust the device to function for you.”

McCoy pushes angrily past Spock, storming away to the edge of where the light falls.  
Spock watches him go, knowing that it is necessary for this to happen. He sits down next to the Captain, next to Jim. He looks calm and peaceful, and Spock makes himself memorize this. The Vians can take him and torture him into insanity, but it will be nothing if, in his insanity, he can remember Jim like this, alive and safe.

Realizing that he is being watched, Spock looks up to see Gem on her feet, considering him with a tender expression in her eyes. She lays a light hand on his shoulder. It unsettles him more than he can admit, so he shifts away and begins to work on studying the device further so that he can find the solution before the Vians come back.

So intense is his concentration that Spock does not see McCoy come up behind him until the cold pressure of a hypospray is being released at his neck. He jumps to his feet, anger and indignation coursing through him before the drug kicks in and he sags unconscious.

McCoy only has a moment to survey the scene before him, Spock and Kirk unconscious on the couch. Gem comes to stand next to him, as if she understands why he had to do what he did.

“I had to,” he says softly, more to himself than to her. “I’m a doctor, dammit. And I didn’t become a doctor to have others die for me.”

Talking to her strengthens his resolve. When the Vians come for him, he is ready.

* * *

When Kirk wakes up to find Spock unconscious next to him, he immediately knows what Bones must have done. “Spock, wake up,” he says, shaking the Vulcan until he regains consciousness.

“The Doctor,” Spock says, sitting up slowly.

“I know. We need to get to him. We have to fix up that device before it’s too late,” Jim says, forcing himself not to panic. He turns his full attention on the device. They work quickly, but it is an uncertain thing to work with machinery so alien that it is almost indecipherable to them. Through this, Gem sits to one side, holding McCoy’s medkit in her lap, watching them work.

Eventually, Spock says, “Captain, I believe we have made enough modifications to allow for one transport. We could use this to transport back to the Enterprise.” Even as he says it, Spock knows full well that neither of them would ever entertain that option.

Jim’s expression is fierce. “No. We’re going to Bones.”

Gem joins them, hugging the medkit to her chest. Her expression mirrors Jim’s, she is determined to go to McCoy.

Spock nods, and with the press of a button, they are sent away.

They come to the laboratory. The Vians are not here. Spock and Jim immediately run to where Bones is suspended from the ceiling, arms raised in some sick imitation of a crucifixion. His eyes are open and unseeing. With their phasers, they release him from his chains and bring him down, settling him on one of the tables nearby.

“Spock, how is he?” Jim asks.

“All we can do is make him comfortable,” Spock says quietly, barely more than a whisper.

“You may know how to stick someone with a hypospray Spock, but your bedside manner is terrible,” Bones says, his voice faint.

“Bones, shut up,” Jim says softly. “I can’t believe you left after I fell asleep. Way to make me feel like a cheap whore.”

Bones laughs, but it quickly turns into a coughing fit that has him doubling over. Jim freezes, can do nothing but watch. It is Spock who holds Bones back and helps him breathe.

“Bones,” Jim breathes, resting his hands hesitantly on Bones’s face. “Why couldn’t you just _stay_?”

He turns to Gem. “You have to help him,” Jim says to her. He sees the fear in her eyes warring with the desire to help McCoy, but before he can say anything else, the Vians return.

Spock and Jim are once again caught in the force field. Jim is really getting tired of this helpless feeling of immobility but he knows that he cannot let himself struggle against it.

The Vians approach Gem. “What will you do? Will you give your life to save his? Is your species capable of such noble sacrifice?” Thann says.

“She doesn’t have to die,” Jim says through the force field. This time he knows not to struggle. “You can heal McCoy.”

“That is unimportant,” Lal says. “We must know if her species is fit to be saved.”

“Saved?” Spock asks.

“The Minara star will go nova and her planet will die. We have the power to save them, but first we must know if they are worth saving. You have been her teachers, have taught her what it is to love and to sacrifice. Let’s see if she has learned,” Thann answers.

“Now,” Lal says, turning to Gem. “What will you choose?”

Gem slowly approaches the table where Bones lies.

“No, don’t touch me,” Bones says. “Whatever you do, don’t touch me. Spock, Jim, don’t let her. You know I can't destroy life, even if it's to save my own. You know that. Please.” With what appears to be a monumental amount of effort, Bones props himself up on one arm to push Gem away. Then he collapses back onto the table, coughing hideously.

Gem still approaches, rests her hands cautiously on McCoy’s torn up face. The cuts and bruises there begin to fade, but the extent of McCoy’s injuries seems to overwhelm her. She recoils from him, falling to the floor. The Vians watch her progress intently.

“Captain,” Spock says quietly so that the Vians will not hear. “I have noticed that when you expend yourself emotionally, the force field becomes stronger. Perhaps if we were to divest ourselves of emotion for a brief moment, the force field will collapse.”

Jim tries. He really does. He tries to empty his mind, tries to remember those meditation techniques Spock attempted to teach him after he asked about Vulcan meditation. But he’s never been good at forgetting his emotions. Emotions have been all he has keeping him on his feet sometimes, and he can’t isolate them like Spock can. Now more than ever. When Bones lies on a table, blood dribbling from his mouth, face contorted in pain, there’s no way Jim can make himself feel nothing.

But Spock can, and he does. With a small noise of triumph, he breaks free of the force field. The Vians are caught unawares and Spock is able to knock the device out of Thann’s hands, releasing Jim from the force field.

Jim grabs the fallen device and turns to address the Vians, who have frozen, helpless without their devices. “No one has to die here. You can reverse this. Heal McCoy, save Gem’s species from the nova, let us all go.”

They look at him coldly. “And why would we do that?” Lal says.

“Because the thing you’ve been studying? What you’ve been so intrigued by? What you’ve tortured and killed for? It’s humanity. It’s compassion. And you don’t have that. You've lost the capacity to feel the emotions you brought Gem here to experience. You don't understand what it is to live. Love and compassion are dead in you. You're nothing but bullshit and intellect,” Jim spits at them.

He takes the other device from Spock, holding both in his hands. Then he gives them back to Lal and Thann. “Now let’s see what _you_ choose.”

There is a brief moment, in which Jim fears that he’s just screwed them over, that the Vians are going to zap them where they stand, that they’ll never see the Enterprise again. Then they go to McCoy. With their devices, they heal him easily. Lal lifts Gem into his arms. Then they are gone.

“Captain, we don’t have much time until the star goes nova. We must get back to the Enterprise,” Spock says. Together, they support Bones, who is still weak, and find the exit passageway, which has appeared once again.

On the surface, they are found almost immediately by a search party. And soon, they are on the Enterprise once again, leaving Minara far behind.

* * *

Life on the Enterprise returns to normal, or as normal as life on the Enterprise can ever be. But Jim distances himself from Bones and Spock. He is not outwardly hostile towards them, but the strained feeling does not go away.

“What’s the matter with you?” Bones says bluntly one day, as him, Spock, and Jim are riding the turbolift down from the bridge after a shift.

“What are you talking about?” Jim asks tonelessly.

“Don’t give me that. You haven’t been the same since the Vians and you know it. Spock tells me you two haven’t played a single game of chess since then,” Bones says angrily.

Jim laughs mirthlessly, looking at Spock. “Is that what this is about? A couple missed game of chess?”  
Bones reaches over and stabs at the controls, stopping the turbolift in its tracks. “Dammit Jim, stop sulking like a baby. What the hell is wrong?”

Jim turns serious. “You. Both of you. You disobeyed my orders, you almost got killed, Bones. And Spock, you were ready to turn yourself insane.”

“We hold by our actions, Captain,” Spock says, not an inch regretful. “Your safety was more important.”

“Not at the cost of yours. Never then,” Jim says. He looks lost, bites at his lip. “Bones, when you were there, on that table, just,” he trails off, voice breaking. “Fuck.” Jim steps forward and kisses Bones, kisses him bruisingly and with a desperate energy, pushing him against the wall. When he breaks away, Bones is breathless and gasping, sagging against the wall of the turbolift like it is the only thing keeping him upright.

Jim turns to Spock, who, in his subtle way, looks like he would gladly be swallowed by the ground beneath him. “And you,” he says. “Don’t ever pull something like that again, Spock.” And then Jim is kissing him too, tugging him closer and carding fingers through his hair until it looks thoroughly mussed.  
When Jim pulls away, the only sound is the three of them breathing heavily, considering each other and what they are about to embark on.

“Well,” Jim says, his voice rough. He clears his throat. “I guess that answers your question.”

Spock gets there before Bones can, pins Jim against the turbolift doors and kisses him roughly. When McCoy joins them, mouth working at the space beneath Jim’s ear, Jim moans wordlessly. Somehow their hands find each other and they clasp each other tightly.  
  
There is a 300% increase in complaints about turbolift delay time that day.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on my [tumblr](http://www.vulcany.tumblr.com).


End file.
